Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Cape Verdean Immigrants Set to Compete in US Open Soccer Cup

Cape Verdean Immigrants Set to Compete in US Open Soccer Cup

When the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup kicks off next week, familiar names from the lower levels of American professional soccer, like the Richmond Kickers and Portland Timbers, will begin play. This year, alongside those perennial participants, the aptly named Emigrantes das Ilhas have improbably secured their own place in the first round of what is recognized as the national championship tournament for American clubs.

The team is based in Massachusetts, and as their name indicates in Portuguese, is comprised mainly of immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa. The Emigrantes das Ilhas represent the United States Amateur Soccer Association, a confederation of amateur teams which hosts regional playoffs to send a handful of teams to the US Open Cup. There, teams are matched in the first round with professional squads from the lower divisions of the American soccer pyramid.

The Emigrantes das Ilhas won the spot from the northeast region for this year’s single elimination tournament. The club was originally founded years ago, to provide a place for Cape Verdeans in the community to practice their favorite sport, explains team president Carlos Amado, who is also a defender for the squad.

///AMADO ACT///

“Back in ’87 the club was founded, mostly by Cape Verdean immigrants. At that time players were arriving here from the islands, who were obviously playing back in the islands, and needed a team here to play. And it was actually the first Cape Verdean team around at that time. Now we have eighteen teams, we have actually got a league - a whole league of Cape Verdean teams here in the States in the Brockton area.”

///END ACT///

Amado says the club is strictly amateur, and no one is paid to play. He says the team depends on businesses in the local Cape Verdean community in Massachusetts to sponsor its activities. About five hundred thousand people of Cape Verdean descent are estimated to live in the United States, most of them in the greater Boston area.

The Emigrantes das Ilhas are mainly first generation immigrants from Cape Verde, with a handful of American-born players of Cape Verdean descent, Amado says. Eddie Lopes is a squad member who arrived almost four years ago from the Cape Verdean island of Sao Vicente.

///LOPES ACT IN PORTUGUESE FADED UNDER///

Lopes says he played soccer professionally in Cape Verde for Batuque FC before coming to the United States. He says he arrived alone, but soon found companions on the soccer field, and joined up with the Emigrantes das Ilhas after playing against them in a tournament of Cape Verdean teams.

Now Lopes, like his teammates, dreams of a good result in the US Open Cup, and the publicity and rewards that would come with it. The last amateur team remaining in the tournament receives a cash prize of ten thousand dollars from the United States Soccer Federation.

Amado says the team could use that money since, unable to afford a bus, they currently take a fleet of cars to matches. He says the team scrapes by on contributions from the Cape Verdean community and income from the broad assortment of jobs the team members hold down.

///AMADO ACT #2///

“We all have jobs. We have social workers, we have bankers, we have players who work in factories, there is a range, delivering furniture. Obviously we all have full time jobs. We only train twice a week. It is going to be difficult playing the professional teams. These are guys that get paid to play. But we are confident that we can beat them.”

///END ACT///

Amado says an even greater prize would be a potential match with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer, the United States’ top league. If they can manage to win in the first two rounds against lower level professional teams, the Emigrantes das Ihlas would line up against the Revolution at Boston’s Gillette Stadium, a field with the capacity for over 68,000 spectators.

///AMADO ACT #3///

“Even now, back and forth to games we are taking four or five, six, cars, as opposed to – we can not afford the bus, or anything like that. To have that opportunity, to even think about the possibility of playing the Revolution at Gillette Stadium, it would be a dream for most of our players. So that is our goal. Our goal is to get that far. If we could get that far, we will be happy.”

///END ACT///

The Emigrantes das Ilhas begin tournament play on June 9th against the Western Mass Pioneers of USL-2, the United States third division of professional soccer. The game will take place at Lusitano Stadium in Ludlow, Massachusetts.

The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup is an annual tournament sponsored by the United States Soccer Federation to crown a national champion. The tournament, which was contested for the first time in 1914, has been dominated by Major League Soccer teams since the league’s founding in 1996.

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